April 8th Chairman’s Message – Happy Easter!

OK – we have officially entered into what some refer to as Hell Week. I personally find it to be exhilarating, and exhausting, in a good way. The message won’t be too long this week, except that there may be subliminal messages in it to sell tickets, and there are many attachments… all of which were important enough to attach in their entirety. If you don’t see the attachments (which are all word docs) or have trouble opening them, check the website chickensball.org and I will post them there tomorrow afternoon (Monday).

Week of April 9th – rehearsal this week is 1st Half (Monday and Wednesday), 2nd Half (Tuesday and Thursday) run throughs and pictures starting at 6:30 pm each night. See the cast & crew tab on our web site for the latest & greatest schedule. Also, copies will be available at Central. Run throughs for entres are ONLY 15 minutes and for skits, ONLY 30 Minutes, please on time. Make-up, stage crew, lights, sound, music will be there all week so plan accordingly. We will be trying out our wireless mics starting Monday, please know who you are getting your mic from and giving it to.

April 14th dress rehearsal – this is an ambitious schedule; call time 9 am; announcements & dedication 10 am; dress rehearsal run through starts at 10:30 am and we should finish at about 1 pm. Please plan accordingly. We will have a special appearance by New Ground, a new dance troop in the area, courtesy of Sandy Rodriguez.

April 29th – 8 am – strike the set… seems blasphemous to put this date on here when we are just going into dress rehearsals but it is a reminder that many hands make light work!

May 5th – After the Ball Party – more info will be available when we have it…

Our Steering Committee has put together a great list of places to go to for before or after show time hospitality. These restaurants have agreed to stay open late for us and have food and drinks ready for us.

I hope everyone is getting their costumes put together. Connie is done with the 8 can can dresses and couldn’t have done it without help from a few others; most notably, Linda Townsend and Sandy “They won’t let me go near an iron again” Abrahamson.

The paint is almost dry on the newly redone ad curtain. The team of artists who worked on it is growing by the day! They all spent hours on the concrete floor helping and probably cursing right now about aching backs.! We have Dan Williamson, Lyndsey Smith, Ricki Smith, Margaret Ana, Kelly Bravo, Fernando Bravo, Steve Beckwith, Carolyn Beckwith, Jack Fisher, Richard Leighton, Bob Bensi, Toby Pollock, Karen Gaffney, Nick Weber and their illustrious leader Robin Weber!

This show is truly a team effort; and all local talent, hand-made costumes, props, etc. to boot. Where else can you find this many skits all written, produced and acted locally???

Look for our messages this week on the Hiller Aviation Sign, the 101 Sign, and the Walgreen’s on El Camino.

How to have a successful Chickens’ Ball – what is needed to survive your performances? Well, there are a few things that are very helpful to have back stage: mirror, lighted mirror, clothing rack, changing area (tri-fold screen); full length mirror; a well-stocked SHOW make-up bag – extra bright blush, false eyelashes (and glue), base make-up, etc. (see the make-up requirements on the cast & crew tab of chickensball.org), straight pins (not straight jackets, although talk to me after the show is over and I’ll tell you if that was really needed). safety pins (large & small), bobby pins, hair pins, wig stand (if you use a wig), mustache or beard glue, garment bags (especially good to have if it is raining)…, gum, mints, snacks, extra nude/skin tone hose, extra fishnet stockings, other extras (undergarments, etc. as needed), and probably a few more items, I am forgetting. Most of all, the ultimate survival tool is a willingness to have fun and a sense of humor! Definitely don’t forget to bring those!

1) People – We are looking for stage crew, who move the skit flats into place when the entre acts are happening, hall boys, who provide security, and call boys, who make sure the right people are getting to the stage at the right time. While I say boys, it is really for boys and girls! We are also looking for 2 more make-up people. If you know of anyone interested, please contact Sonya Sigler at 650-281-8325 or sonya@chickensball.org.

2) Things – we are looking for a couple of things that would be useful in our show: a couple of giant plastic beer mugs for use on the bar; a tri-fold screen to use on stage and the street lamps from prior shows. We heard a rumor that there are street lamps in someones basement…

We will be filming on Saturday April 21st at 8 pm. John Stevens will be filming our show. We will be recording both the ambient sound and the output from the sound system. The video will be $20 and our show photo montage will also be $20 and if you buy them together, it will be $30. You will be able to pre-order this as well, so look for a separate email on this topic.

We will be having a Cinco de Mayo party as our after the Ball party on, funny enough, May 5th. Location and timing will be finalized and details sent out in a separate message. Again, you will be able to pre-order your dinner and we will send the details about that in a separate message.

Please send out the flyers emailed to you Friday, March 30th (or on hand at Central) and encourage your contacts to buy tickets NOW! Don’t forget to share our flyers – ticket flyer, show flyer and neighbor flyer! See last week’s message and the cast & crew tab of our website for more info.